"During the search last evening, forces encountered two more Maoists and took action."

India's Maoist rebels operate in at least 20 Indian states and say they are fighting authorities for land, jobs and other rights for poor tribal groups.

The long-running insurgency has cost thousands of lives and was described by former prime minister Manmohan Singh as India's most serious internal security threat.

On Monday Indian police said they had ambushed a gathering of Maoist rebels at a forest camp near the border of Odisha and Andhra Pradesh states, triggering a gunbattle in which 24 were killed, seven of them women. Another four bodies were discovered at the scene on Wednesday.